China Detains Researcher of Women's Issues

Philip P. Pan, Washington Post

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, March 22, 2001

2001-03-22 04:00:00 PDT Beijing -- A Chinese-born political scientist at American University who does research on women's issues and mainland-Taiwan relations has been detained in China for more than a month, her husband said yesterday.

The Foreign Ministry said she was suspected of "engaging in activities damaging state security."

Gao's husband, Xue Donghua, and her child, Andrew, were released 26 days later. Xue said they had been held in separate locations, and officers refused to let him, his wife or other relatives see Andrew the entire time.

Speaking by telephone from the Washington area, Xue said he was told he could see his son only if he first incriminated his wife. He refused because "she is absolutely innocent."

"My wife has been detained for almost 40 days now. . . . They wouldn't even let me see her before I left," said Xue, a manager for Electronic Data Systems.

"I'm very worried because she has heart disease and other health problems."

Xue said he sought the U.S. Embassy's help immediately, but waited to speak to reporters because the Chinese officers warned him that doing so would make matters worse. He said he changed his mind because "waiting hasn't worked."

The New York-based group Human Rights in China urged President Bush to ask for Gao's release when he meets with Vice Premier Qian Qichen in Washington this week. The group said the detentions violated both Chinese and international law.

Gao and Xue are Chinese citizens who immigrated to the United States in 1989, but their son is a U.S. citizen. China failed to inform the American Embassy of the boy's detention as required by treaty, an embassy official said.

China's Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that Gao was under investigation for activities harming national security and that the case would be handled according to the relevant Chinese criminal statutes.

"It's all nonsense," Xue said. "She's just an academic, a scholar. She's not doing anything against the Chinese government. We wouldn't do that."

Xue said he and his wife were planning to return to China for good and had been looking for jobs teaching in Chinese universities after spending the Chinese New Year with relatives. "We wanted to go back and do something for the country," he said.

Xue said security officers blindfolded him and drove him to a house about two hours from the airport. There, he said he was confined to a room and was not allowed to contact relatives or a lawyer. He said the officers repeatedly questioned him about his wife's work and two visits she made to Taiwan in 1995 and 1999.

Gao's research focuses primarily on Chinese family and women's issues, but she also has written on China's relations with Taiwan, the island it considers part of its territory, Xue said.